The 2004 W40 GTO Chris Winslow

The 2004 W40 GTO By Chris Winslow With 2014 being the 50th anniversary of the 1964 GTO and the 10th anniversary of the 2004 GTO, I wanted to put together an article that tied the two events together. In looking for a way to do that, I ended up looking back to the launch of the 2004 GTO. On January 3, 2003, Pontiac unveiled the rebirth of the GTO in Los Angeles. The offi- cial press release read in part: LOS ANGELES -- Giving the public its first look at the rebirth of a legend, Pontiac, General Motors’ “excitement division,” introduced show car versions of the 2004 GTO to audiences at the Los Angeles Auto Show and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The production version of the GTO will be available in Pontiac showrooms in late 2003. “The public’s interest in the GTO has been everything we hoped it would be, and more,” said Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of product development. “This car is a strong statement from both Pontiac and GM that we are determined to re-energize the car market with vehicles that command attention and excite the customer’s senses.” Pontiac plays an especially large role in this strategy in the 2004 model year with three new product launches. The new Grand Prix debuts in the spring and the V-8- powered Bonneville GXP will bow in early 2004. “The GTO is really the ‘exclamation point’ on the new Pontiac line for the 21st century,” said Lynn Myers, Pontiac-GMC general manager. “Together with the Grand Prix and the Bonneville GXP, the GTO will help define the evolution of Pontiac with fresh, contemporary styling, high-performance excitement and excep- tional driving characteristics.” Of course, little did anyone at that event realize that in a little over 7 years, (2858 days to be exact) Pontiac would cease to exist. This made the unveiling of the new GTO one of the last new product introductions (or re-introductions) in the division’s history. As most people know, the 2004 GTO was based on the Monaro Coupe, an excellent vehicle developed by GM’s Holden Division in Australia. GM’s newly minted Vice President of Product Development, Bob Lutz, was already aware of the vehicle when he assumed his new position at GM in September of 2001. It was, however, during a trip to Holden in February of 2002, when he finally had the opportunity to drive one of these vehicles. Based on that experience, he returned to the States and proposed to then Pontiac- GMC General Manager, Lynn Myers, that the Monaro would make the perfect donor vehicle for a rebirth of the GTO. His reasoning on this point was clear. Holden already had an excellent rear drive chassis (something Pontiac did not have at the time) and an engine compartment that could accept a sizable V8 engine. This was the same basic formula that the legendary John DeLorean had used in 1963 to create the 1964 GTO when he stuffed a 389 V8 engine in the relatively small (for its time) Tempest. As we now know, Meyers green lighted the project and the GTO team was born. The team, made up of members from both North America and Australia, was given a in- credibly short 18 month time frame to bring the new GTO to the US. As was noted in the press release, this tight deadline was necessary as Lutz and Meyers were planning the GTO and the new V8 powered (although still front wheel drive) Bonneville GXP to be the Pontiac Halo cars intended to signal to the world that Pontiac was back in the performance business. Fortunately, Holden had a left hand drive configuration of the Monaro because they were already selling versions of the car in countries in the middle east, so that part of the job would not be difficult. What would turn out to be more of an issue was adapting the car to the harsh North America winters and meeting US safety standards as well as GM corporate standards for North America. As all of us who own these cars know, the biggest sacrifice made to the latter was the relocation of the gas tank into the trunk behind the rear seat. This can make it a challenge for those of us who drive these cars to GTOAA conven- tions because it is tough to get all the luggage and car show supplies needed for week long events loaded in the remaining space! The GM Chief Engineer for this project was Bob Reuter. Bob took his role very seri- ously and spent a significant amount of time researching the history of the GTO to make sure that this latest incarnation was worthy of the GTO nameplate. Bob discussed this with Mr. Gary Witzenburg for an interview in the book The Legend Returns, when he stated: “One of the first things we did was have the Pontiac Historians come in and we looked at the old Pontiac ads to make sure we understood the heritage, and we got a ’64 GTO and spent the day driving it. And we clearly understood there were going to be issues if we didn’t do a retro style, didn’t do a hood scoop, didn’t split the exhaust on different sides in the rear, didn’t put a tachometer on the hood. But when we looked at what was most important, it all came back to power train performance, so that’s where we put all of our eggs. We said we’ll do whatever it takes to get that right – get the exhaust note, the launch feel and the power levels where they needed to be to make it a legitimate GTO. The focus for the program was straight line performance and that’s where we ended up. Some of those other things we’re evolving into a 40th year concept.”1 Bob went on to say, when talking about the LS1 engine and the overall driving experience: “What did we do to get this engine up to350 horsepower? First and foremost we made it breathe better. On the inlet side, we’ve got a much freer-running intake then we had on the Monaro. On the exhaust side, we’ve got true dual exhausts, separate muf- flers and catalysts and resonators all the way to the back of the car. And we put in a higher-lift cam to provide more torque. We decided that it needed more torque, and one way to achieve that is to change the cam. But, there was resistance to that at Holden because it degraded the idle qual- ity. It was a trade off. Same thing with the exhaust note. They said, “You don’t want the exhaust that loud.” We said volume is good, as long as the note is correct. It took them a while to understand that this was important for a GTO. We created a driving experience for this car very much in line with the original GTOs. What’s really impressive is not so much the 350 hp and the 365 lb-ft of torque, but that you’ve got that torque under your foot all the time, over 300 lb-ft of torque eve- rywhere past 1200 rpm.”1 There are a number of interesting things to take away from these comments. First, for those of us who were fortunate enough to hear John Sawruck talk about the new GTO before his untimely passing on November 12, 2008 know, he was one of the historians about which Bob was speaking. John discussed these sessions more than once during talks at GTOAA events. Second, the engineer tasked with bringing the new GTO to life was well aware, even in those early days, that there would be a lot of critics of the styling because it was not a retro car but instead a modern interpretation of the original GTO formula. Third, he dispels the myth that the GTO team just took the LS1 engine and shoehorned it into the car without considering the importance of the way the engine performed and the way the engine sounded. They were in fact very concerned with the heritage and making sure that engine was right for the car. Drop- ping in a higher lift cam was certainly a risky proposition from the point of view of the Bob’s buttoned down bosses back in Detroit, but his team knew it needed to be done and they did it. There is one other very interesting comment that Bob makes in these quotes for The Legend Returns. That is the sentence where he states in relation to things such as retro styling, hood scoops, and the hood tach: “Some of those other things we’re evolving into a 40th year concept.” The implication of this statement is clear. Since 2004 was the 40th anniversary of the release of the original 1964 GTO, there was a plan in the works for a special 40th anniversary edition 2004 GTO to commemorate the 1964. Unfortunately, that statement also leaves open to interpretation what that special edition GTO would include. Certainly it sounds like many of the things that ultimately wound up on the 2005-2006 GTO’s such as split exhaust and hood scoops were under consideration, but was he also saying that other things such as a hood tack and a more retro looking fascia also part of the mix? As we now know, Bob Reuter and his team pulled off something of a minor miracle and were able to meet the 18 month deadline imposed on them by Lutz and Meyers.

Load more